Artificial sausage casing



y 0.. sd-mscxb V 2,289,049

ARTIFICIAL SAUSAGE CASING Filed m 4. 1940 liivefi ioro Otto GchneckO HIS Arroklvz s Patented July 7, 1942 UNl'l' p- STATE ARTIFICIAL SAUSAGE CASING Otto Schnecko, Wiesbaden-Biebrich, Germany Application May 4, 1

In Germany The presentinvention relates to improvements in artificial sausage casings.

Various processes are alreadyknown for preparing tubular bodies, which may be used as artificial sausage casings, from papers coated with a film-forming substance or impregnated to a more or less large extent with the filmforming substance. The hitherto known Products of this kind do, however, not fulfill all practical requirements. Moreover, the use of papers made of long fibers of quite a special genus of plants proved tobe unsatisfactory.

Now I have found that a material which is particularly suitable for the manufacture of artificial sausage casings may be obtained by coating a fleece of artificial textile fibers,v preferably a fleece of staple fibers of regenerated cellulose, with the film-forming substances. Fleeces of said fibers may be made in the usual manner by means of the devices known'in the textile industry, for instance carding machines; whereas the hitherto used papers of long fibers are made, as is known, by a wet process. The fleeces of artificial textile fibers used according to the present invention are distinguished, in comparison with the papers consisting of long fibers, by

or cellulose ethers are also useful. Condensation products and polymerization products of various kinds, for instance those' prepared from unsaturated halogen'hydrocarbons, such as polyvinyl chloride, so-called .super-polyamides and similar substances may likewise be used. Fleeces jof artificial fibers coated with cellulose hydrate have particularly good properties. These cellulose hydratecoatings are produced in known manner, for instance with the aid of viscose or similar cellulose solutions.

I have furthermore found that the fleeces of artificial textile fibers which are very thin 940, Serial No.'333,369

May 1939 sclaime. (01. 99-176) endered, with only a very small quantityof the impregnating agent by applying it in the form of a solution to the fleece with the aid of squeezing rollers. After drying. the fleece thus reinforced is treated in the usual manner with the main portion of the impregnating agent.- This treatment is known from the manufacture of tubular bodies consisting of impregnated paper.

Owing to the preliminary impregnation the flbrous fleece has sufficient tensile strength so that it may be further treated while being unsupported. The finishing of the tubular body is very much accelerated thereby. Only a small portion of the entire impregnating agent to be used is preferably applied for the preliminary nating agent. When operating according to this methodparticularly good casings having a very stable pasted seam are obtained. There is, for

instance, obtained a tubular body useful as an artificial sausage casing by treating a fleece of artificial staple fiber material first with a quantity of the impregnating agent which'amounts only to some percentages of the weight ofthe fleece, .drying the fleece, shaping it to form a casing and then applying thereon a quantity of impregnating agent which is greater than the weight of the fleece and preferably amounts-to a multiple of the weight of the fleece.

The tubular bodies thus pasted and impregnated may be finished in known manner by directly drying them or, if the impregnating agents used require it, subjecting them to a treatment with precipitating baths and cleansing baths and then drying them. If viscose is used as impre nating agent there is advantageously used for the precipitation, a' bath known as Miillerfbath and consisting of sodium sulphate and sulfuric acid. The tubular bodies are suitably dried I in'the inflated state. It fmay be advisable to treat the products with a softening agent before drying them.

The following example serves to illustrate a process of manufacturing tubular bodies accordand flne and show only a slight inner coherence may best be further treated as follows: They are first treated, if necessary after having been calregenerated cellulose and weighs about 20 grams per square meter (length of the staple flber=3.5 cm). When the fleece leaves the carding machine it is taken up by an endless conveying belt 2 which passes over the rollers 3 and l. The fleece is then conducted to a pair of squeezing rollers consisting of rollers 5 and 6 which have been provided with a rubber coating. The

lower roller 6 is partly immersed in a vessel I filled with viscose solution. It is suitable to use a viscose which contains 1.5 per cent 01' NaOH and 2 per cent of cellulose. With the aid of the squeezing rollers the fibrous fleece is impregnated with viscose. The pressure of the squeezing rollers is regulated in such a manner that the quantity of dry substance contained on the fleece after the impregnation amounts to about 4 grams per square meter of fleece. After having passed through the squeezing rollers the wet fleece impregnated with viscose is conducted over a large, driven drum 8, having a diameter of about 2 meters said drum being heated in the interior by steam. By means of an endless felted cloth 9 which passes over the rollers I0, ll, 12 and I3. the fleece is pressed onto the drum 8. In this manner the sized fibrous fleece is dried. The fleece then leaves the roller and by means of a conveying belt H which passes over rollers 15 and 16 it is brought to the place where it is further treated.

For the precipitation of the viscose and for a further purification as it is known in the manufacture of cellulose toils the weakly alkaline fleece of artificial silk staple fiber is passed through a number of treating baths in different tanks. The first of these tanks I! is illustrated in the drawing. The fleece is conveyed in this case by means of driven rollers l! which are situated in or above the tanks. For instance the following baths may be used: a precipitating bath containing about 5 per cent of sulfuric acid and -15 per cent of ammonium sulfate; a desulfurizing bath containing .5 per cent of sodium hydroxide or sodium sulfide and a bleaching bath (.2 per cent 0! active chlorine). Each bath is followed by a washing operation in a special tank. After having left the last bath the foil of artificial silk staple fiber thus treated is dried on a heated cylinder.

The reinforced staple fiber fleece obtained by the process described herein is cut into bands which are then pasted so as to form tubes and impregnated with the main portion of the viscose. For this purpose there is suitably used a viscose containing 5.8-6 per cent of sodium hydroxide and 7-7.5 per cent of cellulose, about three times the quantity of viscose, calculated upon the weight 01' the fleece being applied. The pasting oi the sheet of artificial silk staple fiber to form a tube and the impregnation are claimed out in the same manner asit is applied in the known preparation oi tubular bodies of impregnated paper. This known process is for instance described in U. S. Patents Nos. 2,105,273 and 2,144,900.

The fleece of artificial silk staple fiber may I likewise be impregnated with a pasting agent other than viscose, for instance with a solution of gelatin or casein. If gelatin is used for pasting, it is applied in the form of an aqueous solution of 5 to 10 per cent strength, to which a consisting of a fleece of staple fibers oi regen- 5. A sausage casing comprising a tubular body consisting of a fleece of staple fibers of regenerated cellulose and a coating upon the said tubular body which coating consists of a film of an albuminous substance.

6. A process which comprises forming a tubular body from a fleece of staple fibers of regenerated cellulose, impregnating the said tubular body with a cellulose-solution and then aftertreating the impregnated body so as to produce a coating 01' regenerated cellulose upon the said body.

7. A process as claimed in claim 6 wherein the said cellulose-solution is viscose.

8. A process which comprises applying to a fleece of regenerated cellulose staple fiber a quantity of viscose which amounts to only a fraction of the weight oi! the fleece, treating the fleece so as to precipitaw the cellulose from the viscose solution, drying the fieece, forming a tubular body from the reinforced fleece applying a viscose solution in a quantity greater than the weight of the tubular body upon this body and aftertreating the material so as to produce a coating of regenerated cellulose on the said tubular body.

O'I'IO SCHNECKO. 

